Oct 26, 2016
Oct 20, 2016
Oct 16, 2016
Oct 15, 2016
Douglas Dare - Aforger (Erased Tapes,2016)
Following his debut Whelm, London-based singer-songwriter and pianist Douglas Dare returns with his new album Aforger.
"In a digital age where memories are mimicked by pixels and identity is as malleable as static, Douglas Dare’s new album Aforger questions the boundaries between reality and fiction. Inspired by recent events and revelations encountered in his life these songs depict Dare at his most vulnerable, whilst simultaneously reflecting our own obsession with reality and technology back at us.
Vanishing Twin - Choose Your Own Adventure (Soundway,2016)
London ensemble Vanishing Twin release their debut album 'Choose Your Own Adventure' via Soundway Records.
Vanishing Twin is made up of singer Cathy Lucas (Fanfarlo, The Oscillation) drummer Valentina Magaletti (Raime, Tomaga, Uuuu, Neon Neon), bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin, Floating Points), library music head Phil M.F.U. (Man From Uranus, Broadcast) on strange sounds, and film maker and visual artist Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion."
Drawing on sounds outside of the usual pop vocabulary, the group used forgotten drum machines, home-made electronics, vibraphones, tablas, and harp to invoke the esoteric psychedelia of lost soundtracks, radiophonic experiments and minimal music orchestras. In a studio that Catto built for maximum atmosphere and minimum interfere, and crammed with obscure vintage equipment, he brought his own distinctive sonics to the table, informed by outsider jazz, Italian library music and ethnographic field recordings.
S U R V I V E - RR7349 (Relapse,2016)
Landing in the slipstream of their Stranger Things soundtrack, S U R V I V E commit their sophomore LP of tempered synthetic ecstasy and space cadet emotions. The spectres of ‘80s sci-fi and horror scores looms large and seeps from every pore of RR7349
“Experimental synth quartet S U R V I V E ' s sophomore full-length and Relapse debut is a dark, sweeping exercise in analog synth mastery. The pulsating, 9-song instrumental release showcases immense diversity between tracks - RR7349's compositions range from grim tom-tom thunder to space-age epics, pairing tense plodding grooves with meditative ambience and driving, rhythmic beats. Inspired by IDM and horror scores alike, RR7349 is simultaneously ominous and hopeful; tense and relaxed; percussive and melodic. Additionally, two of the group’s members recently scored the soundtrack for the hit new sci-fi / horror show Stranger Things on Netflix. RR7349 is a unique addition to the Relapse discography, and unquestionably S U R V I V E ' s best work to date.”
C Duncan - The Midnight Sun (Fatcat,2016)
It’s an album that barely raises its head from its surreal slumber, but there’s not a second of its 43 minutes in which the soundscape created by C Duncan feels sluggish. The Glaswegian composer, multi-instrumentalist and graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland creates his artwork and produces his music in his own studio; an insular creative process that results in a contained universe of ambience and eerie euphoria.
The follow-up to his Mercury-nominated album Architect is inspired by the lurching intensity of The Twilight Zone but also shares the melancholy indie atmospherics of Cocteau Twins, Stereolab, Broadcast and Air. Do I Hear? certainly has all the rose-tinted romance of the French duo’s cinematic single Playground Love. There is also an innocence to these songs, a spirituality that, in a year of bold musical statements and political upheaval, provides a soothing tonic; an escapist episode of spectacular beauty.
D.D Dumbo - Utopia Defeated (4AD,2016)
"Led by the spooky strut of the title-track, the lo-fi four song-set of blues-laced, deconstructed pop announced Perry as an exciting newcomer fluent in a language all his own. People took notice and soon he was performing solo with a 12-string electric guitar, two drums and a bunch of effect pedals and on tour with the likes of Daughter, Iron & Wine, Jungle, St Vincent, Tame Impala, tUnE-yArDs and Warpaint.
‘Utopia Defeated’ is his debut album, an epic, sprawling opus sprung from Oliver’s imagination, written and performed almost entirely by him. Based in the 4AD Studios in London, the album was recorded, engineered and produced by Perry and 4AD’s resident engineer Fabian Prynn. Featuring the singles ‘Satan’ and ‘Walrus’, the ten track album hurdles effortlessly over the expectations set by his intriguing debut EP."
Blonde Redhead - Masculin Feminin (4AD,2016)
Before they made intricate, transporting pop for labels like 4AD, Blonde Redhead took inspiration from ’70s no wave and released singles and albums on Smells Like Records, the label of Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. This connection between the bands led some to call Blonde Redhead derivative, but in hindsight — and especially on this collection — the elements that endured in their music and made it special are what stand out.
Another installment in Numero Group’s 200 Line reissue series, Masculin Feminin gathers the band’s first two albums, Blonde Redhead and La Mia Vita Violenta, which arrived in a prolific burst of creativity in 1995, as well as a generous amount of singles, rarities, and radio performances. The set presents this bonus material alongside each…album instead of isolating it, giving a more organic picture of the band’s music during this era.
Helado Negro - Private Energy (Asthmatic Kitty,2016)
Young, Latin and proud, the Brooklyn-based musician writes about insecurity and self-discovery – an oasis of contemplation amid anti-immigrant rhetoric
Roberto Carlos Lange – known as Helado Negro – is an Ecuadorian American artist with an unprecedented sound. His music is a soothing, dreamlike collage of live and unorthodox instruments, and the 36-year-old musician uses his voice in so many absorbing ways, it almost feels as if you’re not listening to a person. “I like to utilize my voice as a new instrument,” says Lange, who is based in Brooklyn. “And when you hear songs in Spanish, for example, there are so many beautiful, flowery and exaggerated words that you can really mess with and they end up sounding like something else.”
Oct 9, 2016
Nedelja popodne...
Various – Britxotica Goes East - Persian Pop & Casbah Jazz From The Wild British Isles!
Label:Trunk Records (2016)
A breathtaking follow-up to the successful Britxotica! LP takes us on a magic carpet ride to a place where the Sphinx, sheiks, sand dances and caravans of camels are the magical, musical norm. But this is music made by post war jazz musicians and show girls from London - blimey! Yes, this is perfect Persian pop and killer Casbah jazz made by Eastenders! It's also British music as rare and as beautiful as Tutankhamun's treasure. You may never come across a more exotic British LP ever again…you'll be cursed if you miss it.
Oct 8, 2016
Yves Tumor
Yves Tumor - Serpent Music [PAN; 2016]
Yves Tumor’s debut for the PAN label offers a perfect distillation of everything the label stands for, filling another as-yet-unnamed niche between the eyes of hypermodern styles. It’s an album that takes you from the most beautifully produced earworm one moment, to the depths of sonic experimentation the next - making for easily one of the most impressive and memorable albums of the year.
Alongside the likes of Dean Blunt or Klein, Yves Tumor is patently rewiring the conventions of soul music and psychedelia according to his own, twisted schematic and modernist insight, making this album feel vital at a point where conservative sensibilities seem to have permeated the spirit of so many “independently" minded creators.
Grumbling Fur
"Heavy Days" is from Grumbling Fur's "Furfour," out September 16 on Thrill Jockey.
Somewhere, in the still-remaining quiet places of London, Grumbling Fur is at work. This being is the joint manifestation of Alexander Tucker and Daniel O’Sullivan which, since 2011, has birthed a series of increasingly focussed albums of psychedelic pop. Their new album, Furfour, is a record that’s the sum of a dizzying array of creative projects by two key figures in an esoteric underground still thriving despite the pressures and pains of modern London.
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker We kill the flame
Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord
There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker We kill the flame
They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord
Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the love that never came
You want it darker We kill the flame
If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker
Hineni, hineni
Hineni,
hineni I'm ready, my lord
Oct 2, 2016
Nedelja popodne...
'Constreaux No. 2' by Dustin O'Halloran from the LP/Digital Album 'Eleven Into Fifteen: A 130701 Compilation' available on 130701 / Fat Cat Records.
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